Earth's Greatest Magus

Emery found himself standing on a yellow plain, ready with his 64 Jade Warriors behind him in an orderly formation. In front of him, separated by meters of distance, stood the man he lost against, Jai Strider with his 15 metallic humanoids.

The battle that was about to ensue between the two was not a monthly arena schedule. Instead, it was an individual challenge. Yet, the number of spectators present in the area was unexpectedly not inferior to those present at the former.

It turned out that the period of 7 days before the duel took place was enough for the news to circulate around and through various circles of people. As a result, there were around a few hundred spectators anticipating the result of this match.

Despite the number of people present, Jai seemed unfazed as he stood in a confident manner. Glancing at the army of Jade Warriors, a faint smile crept onto his face as he said, "I can see you've made some improvements with your summons. I'd really like to see how much you've improved in the three weeks"

Before Emery could say anything, from the side Klea shouted with all her might.

"Emery!! Go kick his ass!"

Her words apparently managed to make the Metal Puppeteer chuckle. 

"Alright, if that's the case, I will make my first move then. Let me see how you will handle this!" Turning towards his own summons, he looked at the most eye-catching metallic humanoids and ordered, "Defenders, advance!"

Jai sent his two massive metallic humanoid – the Defenders – as the opening play. The ground trembled as the towering figures charged towards Emery, underlining their presence in the area. Seeing that, Emery quickly replied in kind.

"Mountain Array! Defensive formation!"

Upon receiving the order, the Jade Warriors immediately took action and adopted the formation. Emery decided to play it safe, and his decision was proven to be true when his 32 Jade Warriors managed to hold down the two huge metallic humanoids.

Four groups, each with eight Jade Warriors that attacked in turns yet also maintained tight defense. They weaved around each other flawlessly, moving back and forth to fully employ their advantage, and managed to completely impede their two opponents perfectly.

Crack!

Faced with multiple sword strikes from the Jade Warriors that came like a tidal wave, the previously invincible duo was no longer infallible as cracks began to appear where they were being relentlessly attacked.

This sight naturally whipped up a reaction from the Metal Puppeteer.

"Huh! Looks like you didn't just dye them green." Turning towards the other metallic humanoids that stay put behind him, Jai swiftly ordered, "Boys, attack them!"

Eight metallic figures – the Fighters – entered the fray, to which Emery responded by sending his Sky Array group of Jade Warriors. Various sounds rang out in the area as the two forces made their move.

Contrary to expectations, the 32 Jade Warriors didn't charge at the approaching metallic figures. Instead, they joined their other kins that were part of the Mountain Array, whereupon they divided themselves and set forth towards eight positions.

They were still fighting in defense formation, but instead of rotating their attacks, they adopted another approach. Making use of their positions, the Jade Warriors employed zone defense with 8 focal points, from north to south, surrounding the 10 metallic figures.

In their previous fight, Jai's formation that consisted of the two Defenders and eight Fighters were able to stand firm against Emery's  300 Mineralized Warriors. But now, in just a few minutes, it was already starting to crumble and Jai was forced to send his two healers to reinforce it.

"You can do it, Emery!" shouted Klea, who was overjoyed to see that the last few weeks of their training had not been fruitless. The spectators on the plains, especially those who were present in the previous match, were excited by how the fight progressed.

"I thought the savage acolyte could only fight like an animal, but it seems I was wrong! Look at this fight!"

"You're right. He really deserves to be in the top 5!"

While the crowd of onlookers were discussing amongst themselves, Jai on the other hand was in quite the situation. The smile on his face had disappeared as he realized that he now had to give his entire focus controlling his summons to fight against Emery's.

His summons were still stronger individually, but thanks to the formation they used, the Jade Warriors the latter summoned managed to take the upper hand and put some pressure on them. In fact, if he wasn't careful, he might be able to lose.

"You taught them formation in three weeks! Amazing!"

Understanding that his formation was inferior to his opponent's, Jai decided to take out another metal ball. As it hovered in the air it began to transform like the others, and this time it latched onto Jai's body and transformed into a huge metal suit with four gigantic limbs.

"Looks like the King must join the fight!"

Jai, along with his most powerful summon – the Guardian Queen, shot forth heading straight into the center of the battle. Meanwhile, his two Knights sped through a long path towards the sides. It seemed like he intended to destroy the Jade Warriors formation with a three-pronged attack.

Even though he didn't know exactly his opponent's objectives, Emery naturally would not underestimate such moves. He decided to enter the fray himself, using his [Twilight Transformation] and drawing his Savage Sword.

Since he only needed to maintain 64 Jade Warriors, Emery still had a little more than half the Spirit Pool, which he could freely use. 

Therefore he went into the battlefield hot!

After casting [Slipstream] onto himself, Emery streaked towards the center of chaos and cast [Void Mist]. Four exact copies of himself appeared and stopped both Jai and his winged humanoid in their tracks. 

At the same time, the real Emery had slipped into the main battlefield. Sneaking his way through the chaos, he headed towards a certain target while channeling dark energy into his sword. The instant he arrived, he attacked without mercy.

[Shadow Edge]

A jet-black crescent-shaped slash appeared and blasted one of the metallic healers apart. Taking advantage of his element of surprise, Emery cast [Blink] to appear right before the other healer and used [Omega Strike] to take it down.

CRAAKKKK!!

It was a swift yet decisive move that struck right into the heart of Jai's formation. By eliminating the two metallic healers from the table, Emery effectively removed one of Jai's metallic humanoid strengths.

However, before he could celebrate his success, the broken figure of the metallic healer suddenly turned into liquid metal. Not only that, it quickly submerged both of his feet like quicksand, rendering him unable to move.

"What the?!" Emery was surprised that Jai had such a move prepared.

With that one move, Emery's [Void Mist] was canceled, leaving Jai and his winged humanoid free. They immediately shot towards the immobile Emery, wanting to deal the decisive blow.

"Hahaha! Everyone always goes after the healer first, so I've prepared a gift!" A massive smile on his face, Jai said, "Now you have lost!"

It was like a huge trap that seemed inevitable. With Emery attacking the healers who were in the middle of the formation, he was now surrounded by all the other metallic humanoids. And under Jai's orders, all the metallic humanoids proceeded to ignore the Jade Warriors they were facing and turned to attack Emery who was in the middle.

Seeing the approaching metallic humanoids, Emery quickly cast a [Jade Wall] and erected a protective dome around him, while also trying to free himself from the shackles of the metallic liquid.

However, to his dismay, it wouldn't budge no matter what he tried to do. It was clear that this metallic liquid was Jai's strongest binding spell.

Craccckk!! Craacckk!!

The dome was smashed open by the relentless attacks of the metallic humanoids. However, Emery realized that Jai was actually still high in the sky. He and the winged humanoid didn't charge in. 

To his surprised, all the metallic fighters jumped in one by one and grabbed onto Emery.

"What the heck!!!" Emery was confused as to why Jai didn't finish him and send all of the fighters instead. He turned to the latter, only to see him smiling and saying some incomprehensible words.

"All are pawns to the king."

Before Emery could understand what those words meant, he suddenly felt a drastic increase in spirit power of all the metal warriors holding him down. He couldn't move or blink, and in the next second, all eight metallic fighters shone brightly.

KAABBOOOMMMM!!!!

Jai's eight metal fighters exploded simultaneously, creating a huge explosion that shook the entire plain. Strong gusts of wind swept through the area, forcing the onlookers to be pushed back several feet.

Klea and everyone watching could see that it wasn't a simple explosion as even Jai's two towering defenders and all of Emery's 64 Jade Warriors were destroyed into pieces.

"EMERY!!!"